


The Kind of Day It Was

by thirdmonday



Category: Real News RPF
Genre: Episode: What Kind of Day Has It Been, Events from The West Wing, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 11:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/686446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirdmonday/pseuds/thirdmonday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith is on the air when someone shoots at President Bartlet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Kind of Day It Was

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mihrsuri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/gifts).



> Prompt: _Keith Olbermann and a special comment on the shooting at Rosslyn_.

Keith is four years old when he learns the word "assassination." It's a big word, but he can say it. It feels like a tongue twister when he says it, the way it slides around in his mouth, but he knows it's not a fun word. It means someone shot the President, and it makes his mother sad and his father angry. It made Walter Cronkite cry.

He learns to spell it when he's nine. It has four S's and three A's, and he's known since he was six that it can happen to more people than the President. When it happens to Dr. King and Sen. Kennedy, one right after the other, he understands why it makes his mother sad and his father angry. It makes him both of those things, and a little scared.

Wallace, Nixon, Milk, Newman, Lassiter: he gets sadder and angrier every time. More afraid, too. He learns that it doesn't matter if it's successful, if it's someone he agrees with. It shouldn't happen anymore; it should be something left to the history books.

Keith Olbermann is forty-one years old when he has to say it on the air: "…an apparent assassination attempt against President Josiah Bartlet in Rosslyn, Virginia."

It was supposed to be an easy night. No show to speak of, just an introduction to and a wrap-up of some special coverage, maybe a few well-placed mentions that "You're watching President Bartlet's town hall event in Rosslyn, Virginia, live on MSNBC" in between. His mind is halfway home when the gunshots start and the control room erupts, and he gets so caught up in the chaos that the weight of what's happening doesn't hit him until he is saying the words.

"Assassination" has four S's, and it slides around even in his dry mouth.

They pull him off the air immediately, not for Brian, but for Tom. He sits numbly at the anchor desk, watching until every channel on every monitor has switched to Brokaw, Jennings, or Rather at their desks, each of them opposite an on-scene correspondent. He doesn't have audio, but he doesn't need it. The networks all cut back to their anchors and the chyrons show up almost at once: Bartlet Shot.

He runs to his office and sinks onto the couch, hand shaking as he aims the remote to turn up the volume. He hears the reports in clips and phrases. George Washington University Hospital. Condition unknown. White House not available for comment. No suspects, and law enforcement is not commenting at this time. For those just tuning in… Excuse me, Tom, we are just receiving word that Joshua Lyman, the President's Deputy Chief of Staff…

Keith stays on that couch in Secaucus all night and wakes up in his suit, the nosepiece of his glasses embedded in his face. He wishes he could spend a minute, even a second, thinking it was all a nightmare, but he has lived through this too many times to disbelieve. 

He gets off the couch and moves to his desk. The computer is still on last night's game of Solitaire, and he closes the window and starts writing his script: _I was four years old when I learned the word "assassination"..._


End file.
